One of Apple’s top 10 productivity apps – Mobile Protection Clean & Security VPN has been pulled from the Apple story after it was discovered that cyber criminals were leveraging “Search Ads” a new functionality in the app. Chris Olson, CEO at The Media Trust commented below.

“Fraud takes many shapes in the digital ecosystem. Whether hijacking a legitimate app to redirect to a another (possibly malicious) app, executing non-human clicks, serving compromised ads or surreptitiously launching other apps it all boils down to opportunity and financial incentive. Just like other ad-supported companies, app stores need to be vigilant about securing the content they promote. In addition to evaluating the reputation of the app developer, effective security requires continuous review of the app, requested permissions and any other network call.”